The invention relates to an automatic clothes washing machine and more particularly to such machines where it is intended that a first treating agent may be introduced prior to beginning of a washing operation and a second treating agent may be automatically introduced into the machine subsequent to the washing cycle in a manner which precludes contact with the clothes being washed.
Automatic clothes washing machines customarily proceed through a sequence of operations in order to wash, rinse and dry clothes. The sequence ordinarily includes a washing operation, a rinsing operation in which the clothes are rinsed in clean water, and a final extraction operation in which the rinse water is removed from the clothes. Additive dispensers have been provided so that the operator may introduce a measured amount of detergent or soap prior to the start of the operation. In the same manner, appropriate water softeners and fabric softeners may be automatically added to the rinse water even though put in the machine prior to the start of the cycle.
In addition to detergents, soap and softening agents, it will readily occur that a suitable liquid bleach or bleaching agent are among the more important additives required by many operators for a large part of their washing operations. The dispensing of bleach raises peculiar problems in that it is imperative that the bleach not directly contact the clothes before they are submerged in water or until the bleach is diluted in water. Also, due to the difficulties created by the highly corrosive nature of most of the commercially available bleaches provided for clothes washing purposes, it is necessary that great care be taken in the storage of bleach. To this end, some prior art attempts at dispensing bleach has been to provide a separate dispenser means for bleach which enables the operator to place the bleach directly into the outer tub where it may be diluted during the water fill operation. While this solves the problem of dispensing bleach, it does require a dispenser separate from the dispenser used for dispensing other additives and is therefore somewhat inconvenient.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an additive dispenser adapted to be mounted on the oscillatory agitator which is adapted to deliver a charge of liquid rinse additive into the basket following a sequence of operations which include a washing operation and a high speed centrifugal extraction of the wash water, which extraction immediately precedes the operation in which the liquid rinse addition is to be utilized, and is further adapted to permit a liquid bleach to be dispensed directly into the outer tub prior to the washing cycle where it will be diluted by the water entering during the initial fill operation.